Mickey Hargitay

Mickey Hargitay

One bodybuilder who "made good" was Mickey Hargitay, who married the famous blonde bombshell Jayne Mansfield in 1958. Hargitay rose through the ranks in the AAU Mr. America contests in the early fifties before winning the NABBA Mr. Universe title in 1955. He trained at Bob Higgins' Gym in Indianapolis, Indiana and in York, PA on occasion. Hargitay appeared on the cover of a number of strength magazines throughout his career.

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George Eiferman: Pushups on Benches

George Eiferman: Pushups on Benches

1948 Mr. America George Eiferman demonstrates pushups on benches in what looks to be the old York Broad street Gym. A Simple... but effective exercise. Eiferman was well known for his chest development and this movement was one of his favorites.

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Chuck Sipes Lifting His Truck

Chuck Sipes Lifting His Truck

Chuck Sipes was one of the strongest bodybuilders of all time. Chuck, who won the 1959 IFBB Mr. America, 1960 IFBB Mr. Universe and 1968 Mr. World Bodybuilding titles, could also could perform several incredible feats of strength.

As he was training to accomplish a 600 pound(!) bench press, Chuck used to train using a variety of techniques involving heavy supports and negatives -- he even had a special handle welded to the underside of his pickup truck which he used to lift and support the whole affair.

Sipes would first lift the pickup truck as high as he could with his arms then wedge his legs underneath. In the top position, he estimated that he was supporting 1600 pounds.

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Chest Expanders

Chest Expanders
It's hard to tell from this angle but I believe that's 1945 AAU Mr. America Clarence "Clancy" Ross demonstrating one of the very best chest expander exercises.

Just another example in the long line of Champions who have built their strength from using them.

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The Nautilus Pullover

The Nautilus Pullover
1969 AAU Mr. America Boyer Coe pictured with a vintage Nautilus Pullover circa 1972.

The Nautilus Pullover took the strength world by storm in the early 1970's and it will work just as well today -- provided it's used correctly. A few hard sets (per week) will build incredible back and upper-body development, again, if it's used correctly.

There aren't many pullovers of this generation left these days, if you have access to one, consider yourself lucky.

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Frank Leight - Mr. America 1942

Frank Leight - Mr. America 1942
Frank Leight, AAU Mr. America 1942, with some classic globe barbells and kettlebells on the cover of the July, 1942 issue of Strength and Health Magazine.

Frank Leight finished 2nd in 1940 (losing to John Grimek and 3rd in 1941 (again behind Grimek, and Jules Bacon)before finally winning the Mr. America contest himself in 1942.

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George Eiferman's Favorite Strength Feat

George Eiferman was the 1948 AAU Mr. America and 1962 IFBB Mr. Universe winner and was particularly well-known for his chest development. On of the ways in which he built such a deep and impressive chest was regular trumpet playing. Eiferman used to like to show off a bit too and was fond of playing the "Hawaiian War Chant" on his trumpet with one hand while holding a loaded barbell overhead with the other. -- Talk about core strength. He regularly performed this feat at Muscle Beach.

George Eiferman

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Armand Tanny's Favorite Exercise: The One Arm Clean

Armand Tanny's Favorite Exercise: The One Arm Clean
Armand Tanny (brother of Vic Tanny) was a very successful bodybuilder in the late 40's and 50's, and a regular at the original Santa Monica Muscle Beach scene.

Tanny competed in many major bodybuilding contests and won the Pro-Mr. America in 1950. His favorite exercise was one you don't often see these days: the one arm clean.

Its hard to tell how heavy the bar is loaded to in this shot -- I'd say at least 225 or so, and you sure won't find any bodybuilders who could do that these days.

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1938 Mr. America Bert Goodrich With Strongman Stage Weights

1938 Mr. America Bert Goodrich With
Strongman Stage Weights
One of the great things about the history of strength training is that many of the early strength athletes had their own personal training equipment made up which lent quite a bit of character to their training.

Here is a very rare picture of 1938 Mr. America Bert Goodrich with some very interesting oldtime equipment, a globe barbell and kettlebell.

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Mr. America 1957 Ron Lacy

Originally from Hazard, Kentucky, Ron Lacy was the winner of the 1957 AAU Mr. America Contest. He also won the 1955 Mr. Kentucky Contest and finished first in the medium class in the NABBA Mr. Universe contest. Ron was also well known for his leg development and once squatted 300 pounds for 50 consecutive reps.

Mr. America 1957 Ron Lacy

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Bert Goodrich - The First Mr. America (1938)

Bert Goodrich The First Mr. America

The first ever AAU Mr. America was Bert Goodrich, shown here on an early cover of Iron Man Magazine. Bert got his start by training with Earle E. Liederman's courses and was a tremendous athlete in highschool, excelling in hand balancing, swimming, and track and field events. He went on to became a stuntman in several Hollywood Movies and later opened up his own gym.

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1971 AAU Mr. America Casey Viator

1971 AAU Mr America Casey Viator
On June 12th, 1971, Casey Viator went on to win the AAU Mr. America bodybuilding contest in the most dominating fashion imaginable.

In addition to winning the overall title, in that contest Casey also nearly swept the sub-categories of Best Arms, Best Back, Best Chest and Most Muscular.

The only award Casey did not win at that contest was "Best Abdominals" (probably because He won everything else.)

Find out his exact training here.

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Swingbell Exercises

Swingbell Exercises with Jules Bacon, Mr. America 1943
I've mentioned the Swingbell before, now here it is in action.

As you can see you can do several exercises with a swingbell that would be difficult with normal barbells or dumbbells dumbbells. Swingbell Exercises are particularly good for strengthening the abdominal muscles.

That's 1943 Mr. America winner Jules Bacon demonstrating.

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Steve Reeves' Favorite Exercises for Building The Classic Physique

You can see why they say Steve Reeves has the classic physique -- he looked like a Greek statue brought to life. He was also one of the most successful bodybuilders of all time, winning almost every contest he entered including the 1947 AAU Mr. America title. Reeves trained at the York Barbell Club in York, PA for the 1950 NABBA Mr. Universe contest (which he won.) While there, John Grimek, watched him train, and later wrote an article about what he saw in the November, 1964 issue of Muscular Development Magazine.

Steve Reeves

Here are some of Steve Reeves' favorite exercises, as written by Grimek:

Hack Squats

Cable Rowing

Incline Bench Dumbbell Curls

Behind Neck Press

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1951 Mr. America Squats With an Anvil

Anvil Lifting - Roy Hilligenn 1951 Mr. America
How's this for odd object lifting? 1951 Mr. America Roy Hilligenn does some squats with a pretty big anvil on his back.

Roy Hilligenn weighed around 175 pounds and I bet that anvil isn't too far off...

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1963 Mr. America Vern Weaver

Vern Weaver won the AAU Mr. America contest in 1963. He was well known for his superb back development could power clean close to 400 pounds! Here's a look at one of his weekly routines: Monday and Thursday: Decline Bench Press: 6x6 Chins: 6x6 Tuesday and Friday: Parallel Squats : 6x6 High Pulls: 6x6

1963 Mr. America Vern Weaver

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The York Big 12 Special

The York Big 12 Special
This is the weight set that helped put a lot of muscle on a lot of people - The York Big 12 Special as advertised on the back of the June, 1952 issue of Strength and Health Magazine.

That's Jack Delinger (Mr. America, 1949) on the left, and John Farbotnik (Mr. America, 1950) on the right.

This set included 240 pounds of barbell plates, long barbell bar, short dumbbell/swingbell bar, health boots, a head strap for building neck strength, wrist roller, kettlebell handles, collars and four York training courses (York Dumbbell course 1 & 2, Leg Development and Swing Bar Training.)

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Dave's Gym - South Bend, Indiana

Dave's Gym - South Bend, Indiana
Dave Bjoraas, (pictured far right) the legendary "Dave" of Dave's Gym and Dave's Barbell Club of South Bend, Indiana... for many years the center of strength activity in the Mid-Western United States.

Dave's Gym in South Bend, Indiana produced many Iron Game champions: 1956 Mr. America Ray Schaefer trained there. So did Jr. Mr. America Doug Lindzy (pro-wrestling's original "Doug Gilbert").

Dave's Barbell Club Weight-lifting team produced champions like Winston Binney and Mike Burgener. And, most importantly, many of the top football players on Notre Dame's great Irish teams trained with Dave.

Dave's Gym... one of the top gyms ever... Dave Bjoraas, a fine man and a giant in the world of weights.

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Roy Hilligenn - 1951 Mr. America

Roy Hilligenn 1951 Mr. America

Roy Hilligen was a great all-around "iron athlete." As a bodybuilder, he won the Mr. South Africa title in 1943, 1944, 1946 and 1976 as well as the AAU Mr. America Title in 1951. As an Olympic lifter, Hilligenn was the first South African to Clean and Jerk double body weight. His lifts in 1946 were Press: 245 pounds, Snatch: 255 Pounds and Clean & Jerk: 321 pounds. In the early 1950's, and weighing just 173 pounds, Hilligen unofficially equaled the world record in the Clean & Jerk with a lift of 375 pounds.

He eventually Clean & Jerked 405 at a slightly heavier body weight, which was an unofficial world record at the time. It was voted as one of the greatest "lifts" of all time. Hilligenn also "cleaned" a pair of 142-pound dumbbells (but did not press them) at Ed Yarick's Gym in Oakland, California in the 50's.

Interestingly, he was also a life-long vegetarian.

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George Eiferman - Chest Development

- George Eiferman - Chest Development

Back in the old days, "chest development" meant chest and ribcage expansion. Here's a look at George Eiferman, a classic bodybuilder, who was famous for his chest development, on the cover of the February, 1948 Strength and Health Magazine. Eiferman won the AAU Mr. America, AAU Mr. California and IFBB Mr. Universe titles. In this picture Eiferman weighed around 190 pounds. You can tell that ribcage and chest expansion contributes greatly to the "look" of strength and power.

Kind of amazing that six decades later most professional bodybuilders out weigh him by 60-70 pounds yet still aren't as impressive.

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The Arm of Casey Viator

At just 19 years of age, Casey Viator became the youngest man to win the Mr. America title. This impromptu shot from 1971 gives you a pretty good idea why. Under the tutelage of Arthur Jones, on May 16, 1971, Casey Viator won the AAU Junior Mr. America contest.

The Arm of Casey Viator

Then, four weeks later, Casey Viator won the AAU Mr. America contest in the most spectacular fashion in the history of such contests.

In addition to the overall AAU Mr. America title, Casey took the Most muscular Man in America title and the subdivisions for Best Arms, Best Back, Best Chest and Best Legs.

The Nautilus Bulletins

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Dave Draper - "The Blonde Bomber"

Dave Draper is one of the best known "Golden Age" Bodybuilders from the California Bodybuilding Scene in the 1960's and 1970's. Known as "The Blonde Bomber", he sure would not look out of place on the beaches of Santa Cruz (even though he was originally from New Jersey.) Here's a look at his winning contest history: 1963 - Mr. New Jersey - IFBB 1965 - Mr. America - IFBB 1966 - Mr. Universe - IFBB 1970 - Mr. World - IFBB

Dave Draper

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Steve Stanko

On April 19, 1941 Steve Stanko made history as he the first man to break the mythic 1000-pound total in an official weightlifting contest.

Unfortunately Stanko also suffered from painful blood clots in his legs and five weeks later found himself in the hospital. By mid-1942 he regained enough health to begin light upper-body training again. He was told to stay off his legs and could only train while sitting or lying on a bench.

Steve Stanko

Through his specialized upper-body training program he was able to build himself into a bodybuilding champion, winning the 1944 AAU Mr. America and Junior Mr. America, the 1945 Most Muscular Man in America and the 1947 Mr. Universe.

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